Marked for Yojan Garcés
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Stiven Palomeque
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. America de Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. America de Cali have done the hard part with Junior, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Real Cartagena; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
America de Cali asked and Cortulua said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Bogota wanted more than $230.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Yojan Garcés and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Luis Quiñones's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Stiven Palomeque damages knee ligaments — 90 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 90 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” America de Cali may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market16 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at America de Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Yojan Garcés and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Tomás Mejía falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
121 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. America de Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market19 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Contreras will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around America de Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Yojan Garcés and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market19 Oct 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Mejía was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Nobody at America de Cali will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and America de Cali will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
143 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. America de Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market28 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match26 Sep 2026
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match26 Sep 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Yojan Garcés was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The form table has caught Omar Bertel
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Javier Cuadrado was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the America de Cali dressing room was either.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at America de Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marlon García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑1 against Atletico Bucaramanga, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad31 Aug 2026
David Ospina is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with David Ospina: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $2.8M sale of Jean
He is going to Sevilla, the club has $2.8M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market31 Aug 2026
Jean moves on
Sevilla pay $2.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A move Stiven Palomeque would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Stiven Palomeque is living that version at America de Cali, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Yojan Garcés was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
David Ospina falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Pacos de Ferreira for Yojan Garcés was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jean signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jean commits to America de Cali for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jean and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Junior, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market3 Aug 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Ospina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marlon Torres, and the manager let it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Jean's contract
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.